Atelier Iris: Eternal Mana has the most awkward plot arrangement I've seen in years. It is literally people telling you "hey we should go here next" in succession, without any organic sort of flow. Add the rampant backtracking and I'm starting to get quite annoyed. The combat is fine and the multiple types of item synthesis are quite nice, but I'm starting to doubt that this game is worth 30 hours of my time.

I'm disappointed they returned to the same old formula of "beat evil team -> elite 4" after the first game shaking things up. The pacing was terrible since most of the game was composed of nothing, only for something remotely interesting happen during the end. It's nowhere near the level of White 1, which was surprisingly good. I knew it was a cash in, but still hoped for a little more.

Highlights were the remixed music, the memory link feature and the game asking if you wanted to use another repel.

Playing Shadow of the Colossus now. Was planning to platinum Ico but, to hell with it, an under 2 hour speed run is pretty tedious and I don't like the game enough to spend a lot of time on it, in particular with Okami waiting on me. (I hate speed-runs in general, anyway.) On that note...Okami is downloading as I type! And Crash Bandicoot 2.

I loved 999 and based on Dice's commentary I'll have to pull together some scratch for Virtue's Last Reward one of these days.

Beat Darksiders 1. Lots of fun. I didn't have any issues with the dungeon length. Maybe initially yeah, but the puzzles get really creative later on and the later dungeons make use of all of the "tools" you get not just the one you find most recently. Combat is fun but aside from the 1st boss they're all pretty easy, but still fun.

Games felled so far in 2012rageicoalan wakeresident evil 5journeydragon age 2

Played KF2 for an hour and a half. It's a lot smoother than KF1 or The Ancient City, and the area design so far has been quite good. Sound effects are also creepy. Not really as good looking as Shadow Tower was though, and I do wish it had manual blocking.

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o/` I do not feel joy o/`o/` I do not dream o/`o/` I only stare at the door and smoke o/`

Played KF2 for an hour and a half. It's a lot smoother than KF1 or The Ancient City, and the area design so far has been quite good. Sound effects are also creepy. Not really as good looking as Shadow Tower was though, and I do wish it had manual blocking.

Do you mean King's Field 2 as in the Japanese King's Field 2 or the US version which is actually King's Field 3?

Played KF2 for an hour and a half. It's a lot smoother than KF1 or The Ancient City, and the area design so far has been quite good. Sound effects are also creepy. Not really as good looking as Shadow Tower was though, and I do wish it had manual blocking.

Do you mean King's Field 2 as in the Japanese King's Field 2 or the US version which is actually King's Field 3?

KF2US.

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o/` I do not feel joy o/`o/` I do not dream o/`o/` I only stare at the door and smoke o/`

Beat Darksiders 1. Lots of fun. I didn't have any issues with the dungeon length. Maybe initially yeah, but the puzzles get really creative later on and the later dungeons make use of all of the "tools" you get not just the one you find most recently. Combat is fun but aside from the 1st boss they're all pretty easy, but still fun.

Games felled so far in 2012rageicoalan wakeresident evil 5journeydragon age 2

There are a few obstacles I can see that would make you hate Darksliders (or at least not appreciate). :the art style is very big limbs, big hands, big swords. Whereas gears of war looks foolish for this, it totally works for this game. enemies look great though and the animation is pretty stellar for an "older game":it takes a dungeon or two to totally escape the feeling that you're playing a god of war clone that doesn't look as good. but by the 3rd dungeon you have fun battles and pretty clever puzzles to tackle. :

Some other intangibles that aren't talked about a lot in this game:Mark Hammil voices your guardian. He's basically the Joker here but he's awesome at that voice. Awesome footstep sound effectsThe game constantly empowers you. You're always getting new attacks, gear, and tools. It keeps it up to the very end. Spectacular environmental variety.

The story is interesting, but isn't put together very well. But by the end you love it and the last scene is a good "awww hell yeah moment."

The think that makes me think you would love it is the combat is fast, tight, and spot on. It's without a doubt a "gamer's game."

I love that "clop" sound of shoes in games. I love when they keep in mind what a player is stepping on too -- changing for metal steps, grass steps, and my favorite, wood-hitting steps.

I may get it. It's like fifteen bucks used and if it's a lot like a macabre[?] Zelda game with puzzles and dungeons, I'm sure I'd like it.

I'll just trade for it too; get rid of the Infamous collection. Maybe it was how gross everything looked, but the game didn't sit well with me, and the story telling was so...hokey. I'll sit with my Ass Creed for the sandbox style me thinks.

I finally managed to start Okami (HD). This is the third time I've paid for the game and I don't regret it one bit. I don't know how much of an improvement the HD is over the original but the game is beautiful. The trophies don't hurt, either. I'm looking forward to the journey.

Congratz Yoda. Glad Darksiders was worth it for ya. I should probably go pick it up next time I head to the Mall.

Anyways, I've been playing Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Distruction and Pokemon Black Version 2. Both are games I'm really enjoying, but not quite as much as I expected to. For R&CF:ToD, it really feels like the series' charm is wearing off on me. This game does quite a few things differently, but not enough, and some of them are worse (I miss destructable environments...). It's still clever, funny, and mostly well made, but there are some annoying glitches and some levels are drawn out more than they should be, especially the missions where you bring those two clunkers along. Oh well, I figure I'm nearing the end, so I'll probably power through the rest soon enough.

Pokemon Black 2 - There are a lot of things really holding this back, and most of them were things done right in Black 1. The non-trainer dialogue is pretty bland, and the story so far has been really bad, even for a Pokemon game. It's poorly written, poorly paced, pooly put together, and worst of all, Team Plasma no longer comes off as a threat so you don't really have much pushing you forward. I thought it couldn't get much worst than Team Galactic's half-hearted shinanigans, but Team Plasma has taken the cake, and is definitely a shadow of its former self. And I miss N something fierce, too. Oh well, I like the new stuff they added, which is a ton, except for the Movie making mini-game. That sucked. Also, there's an endless supply of pokemon to collect now, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good thing, because that gives me tons of choices, bad thing in that it slows the pacing as I try to get as much as I can before I give up. I also seem to need to grind more than I did in Black 1. I'm 4 badges in, but I fear I may burn out before the end.

Also, while I was writing this, I went and played some Super Mario Sunshine. Too keep it short, the problems of this game are starting to mount, too. It's still good, but I'm on the 3 most frustrating levels in the game (I hope). One requires the camera cooperates with me (which it only does half the time), another is a boss fight against ever multiplying shadows which I cabn't seem to beat, and the last one is just really hard. Oh well, at least getting the Blue coins can be fun sometimes.

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“MY NAME IS POKEY THE PENGUIN I LOVE CHESS!! IT IS LIKE BALLET ONLY WITH MORE EXPLOSIONS!”I Draw Stuff Sometimes

I agree with you on Pokemon Black 2. Or, White 2 in my case. I've beaten all 8 gyms and now on my way to Victory Road, but I never felt like there was any reason compelling me to even fight these 8 gyms. Team Plasma shows up once or twice, and you are supposed to stop them, but randomly the game says "but you should get the blahblah badge first!". Why? Shouldn't I be going after team Plasma? Why beating the gym in any way important?

The game puts you in a situation that needs urgency, but makes you do unimportant, trivial things first. I know it's pokemon, and getting the badges has always been the reason for going forward, it's just that it's never really talked about in this game.